Gilcrest officials, local farmers draw attention to damage from high groundwater

From a trailer being pulled through the town of Gilcrest by a tractor on Monday night, Town Mayor Jeff Nelson pointed out a patch of drooping concrete in front of a neighborhood home — a sinkhole the town spent $30,000 to repair.

"This is an ongoing problem anymore here in Gilcrest," Nelson said.

Nelson's comments on Monday mirrored those of many local farmers for the past several years, who say record-high groundwater levels continue to cause costly damage to their property and crops.

The town of Gilcrest has had to replace the lining of its sewage treatment pond at a cost of $450,000, and paid $250,000 to repair water pipes that snapped in half thanks to a large sinkhole, said interim Town Administrator Trudy Peterson. Nearly all of the town's issues with high groundwater predate the September flood, Peterson said, and she said an engineering firm hired by the town, Broomfield-based RG and Associates, concluded the issues are due to high groundwater levels.

Nelson and Peterson on Monday rode on a trailer provided by LaSalle-area farmer Glen Fritzler, who organized a community meeting to draw attention to the high groundwater levels in the area. Fritzler has wrestled with high water levels for years.

The sewage pond's lining is beginning to bubble up — Nelson said the town calls the bubbles "whales" — due to naturally occurring methane gases being pushed up from the rising water levels, Peterson said. Town officials say it's only a matter of time before the lining breaks, but they have depleted all of their resources fixing other water-related problems.

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State Reps. Lori Saine, R-Dacono, and Perry Buck, R-Windsor, Weld County commissioner candidates and town residents joined Gilcrest officials on their tour of damage on Monday.

Gilcrest resident Glenn Durant said he has spent $55,000 since 2008 to pump excess water from his basement and uses 13 pumps to keep the water at bay.

"The augmentation plan is keeping the water out of my basement," Durant joked.

Saine is one of the cosponsors of House Bill 1332, which aims to provide some relief from high groundwater levels through de-watering measures, funding for more groundwater monitoring and studies, and a potential "basin-wide management entity."

The bill had its first committee hearing last week and is scheduled to go before the Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

But for some, including Fritzler, de-watering isn't an option because the excess water pumped from his fields must be returned to the river, which is miles away. Fritzler said he would have to transport the water across four miles of private property.

Groundwater has long been an issue in Weld County because many local farmers can't legally pump their wells to use the excess water that floods their basements and ruins crops in their saturated fields.

State law requires an augmentation plan to pump groundwater, meaning property owners must replace the water they use for senior water rights holders, who have first claim on the water supply in rivers and streams down the line.

But because of increasing water prices, some in the ag community struggle to find affordable water they can use for augmentation.

Some experts say the high groundwater levels aren't necessarily due to the fact that those wells can't be pumped, and the existing system for groundwater management is important in protecting senior surface water rights, some of which date back to the 1800s.

Members of the Central Colorado Water Conservancy District support the House bill, but the Colorado Water Congress voted against it, and members of the South Platte Basin Roundtable — a group of water officials and other experts — say legislation right now is premature.